Viewpoints
Post EDSA 1: One big lost opportunity
By +Oscar V. Cruz JCD
EDSA I was wonderful for the country, a pride of the Filipino people. It was the end-result of a prolonged rude rule. It was the ultimate effect of incarnate self-service in a public office. It was the blessed birth of the so called “People Power” that these days seems to find more and more expressions in nations under decades of dictatorial governments. It was in particular, the concrete demonstration that it is in the civil community that power and influence really reside—notwithstanding all pretenses of royalties, dictators and politicos to the contrary.
Except for those who benefited well and much thereafter with the onset of a the new government, it was the immediate post-Edsa regime that undermined the bright promise of the search of truth. The promise of justice, the reign of peace – not to mention the strong expectation of progress and development. But then, for those who still remember, when people aired their cry for food, shelter and clothing, the incumbent leadership retorted something to this effect: You already have freedom! You already have democracy! What else do you want? What else do you need?
This in no way is meant to belittle the few key characters and millions of ordinary citizens that made EDSA 1 an unforgettable reality, a historical landmark. This is merely intended to say the truth that respects no party, excludes no person. This is simply intended to bring out the stark difference between the EDSA 1 phenomenon and the subsequent executive branch of government that took over the governance of the Republic. To say that it was a big dismay, is saying it mildly.
The Hacienda Luisita became a big “legal” deal, although it was proudly claimed by the then administration that Agrarian Reform was precisely the centerpiece of the ruling government as a whole. The Mendiola Massacre took place as a consequence thereof such that some citizens who joined the EDSA 1, was violently deprived of their lives. The infamous “Kamag-anak Inc.”, became a by-word when the rah-rah boys of the Martial Law author and executor were dethroned and the go-go kin constituents of the succeeding national leadership took over. To these days and time: the hacienda remains a curse. The massacre rests unsolved. The Kamag-anak are somehow still around. This is not mention the some six or more coup venture that took place then.
MABUHAY EDSA 1 – the individuals who started it, the characters who promoted it, the critical mass of Filipino who completed it! What a demonstration of a peaceful revolution! What a display of public unity and solidarity! What a people – the Filipinos!
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